Thoughts and commentary about the janitorial and office cleaning business.

06/20/2016

Really tight security

From my operations manager, over the weekend:

"Aurora had the alarm go off on her at -------- because her alarm code would not work. She called the alarm company and gave them the abort code, which did not work either; and all they told her was that they would call someone and get back to her. (Meantime, the alarm was sounding and the police really should have been dispatched.) We called the client emergency contacts; no answer from either.

"While I was on the phone with her someone showed up and said he was in charge of the alarm system and couldn't find her code anywhere in the database. He was able to give us a new code right away.

"When I was done talking with him I actually got a call back from the contact who had quit working at ------- and realized she had probably given us her personal alarm code. She gave me the new contact's number...."

So when the client's employee left, the client deleted her alarm code and changed the firm's abort code (the password you use should you need to talk with the alarm company). So far, so good. But allowing her to give us (we're a provider of janitorial service Phoenix) her personal alarm code in the first place is not wise, for several reasons. The point of giving each individual and service provider a unique code is to be able to identify exactly who was in the facility at a given time (like, when the furniture disappeared...).

I don't know of a single alarm service that charges extra for allowing individual alarm numbers. Generally, the alarm system allows an individual user to program in his own number, so that only the alarm service knows it; the employee is only known to the his employer as "user #17", or whatever. Thus no-one, even management, can use another's number.

A while back, I had a client - an optometrist with a large inventory of designer eyeglass frames and sunglasses - use the same code for everyone (didn't want to deal with a lot of confusing numbers); he also issued keys to most everyone, and did not re-key, or change the alarm code, when he lost employees. Too much bother. And then was surprised when he was burglarized.

We're pretty aggressive about security, in both our own facility and in the facilities of all our office cleaning Phoenix clients. Should we loose a janitor with key and/or code access, we suggest a re-keying (at our expense) to the client, and pretty much insist on a new alarm code. Seems the right thing to do.

Come to think of it, the client that I first spoke of didn't change the locks when his employee left, either.

We've offered janitorial services in Phoenix since 1974; hold the BBB's A-plus rating; and have long been in the forefront of the industry in environmentally sensitive cleaning for health, safety and security. Our office cleaning program can generally improve Indoor Air Quality, in the size range of most allergens, by a factor of 50%, as reflected in our ongoing IAQ sampling. We also furnish Green Seal certified recycled restroom paper products and janitorial supplies.